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This page is an AI-assisted Turkish summary of the study presented at the 26th World Congress of Psychiatry. The study belongs to the presenting authors; please refer to the original source when citing it.

The balance between compassion and science in forensic psychiatry

The balance between compassion and science in forensic psychiatry

Combining scientific rigor with empathetic neutrality and human rights standards in forensic assessment enhances both data accuracy and the legal and moral weight of expert opinions.

The talk examines the balance between scientific objectivity, humane compassion, and international human rights standards in forensic psychiatry. It emphasizes that forensic psychiatry operates entirely within the legal domain and that an expert witness’s primary responsibility is to the court and to objective truth, while assessments must also respect fundamental human rights, procedural justice, and the dignity of the person being evaluated. This synthesis draws on frameworks presented in the field’s leading journals: Pirelli and Zapf (2020) emphasize the standardization of objective methods; Appelbaum (2022), the ethical boundaries between scientific impartiality and human dignity; Candilis and Martinez (2021), empathetic neutrality as an evaluative stance; and Adshead and Sarkar (2023), the alignment of forensic practice with human rights frameworks. The literature is described as showing that detached assessment models risk overlooking qualitative context, the nuances of malingering, and human rights violations within legal systems. It is argued that empathetic neutrality facilitates accurate data collection without introducing bias, and that incorporating human rights standards into objective assessments strengthens the legal admissibility and moral authority of expert opinions by providing safeguards against arbitrary detention and unfair trials. Ultimately, the talk argues that evidentiary rigor, human rights principles, and professional compassion together enable unbiased and ethically sound assessments.

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